Nordicana D102 / DOI : 10.5885/45789CE-B06C83701915428A

Ground temperature under unmitigated embankment and in natural conditions along the Alaska Highway at the Beaver Creek Road Experimental Site, Yukon, Canada (1997-2007)

Daniel Fortier^{1, 2}, Lin Chen^1,2
¹Département de géographie, Université de Montréal
²Centre d'études nordiques (CEN)

Abstract

The data are from a test section of the Beaver Creek experimental road site (BC-RES) (62° 20' N; 140° 50' W; 649 m a.s.l.). The dataset covers the period 13/04/1997 - 31/12/2007. The thermistor strings (accuracy of ± 0.1 °C between -10 °C to +10 °C; ± 0.2 °C between -50 °C to -10°C and +10°C to 30 °C) were installed in the boreholes located in the natural ground (8.0 m, YG4 Original), at the centerline of the road (9.7 m, YG4 Original), and in the slope of the unmitigated embankment (9.7 m, YG4 Original). Detailed descriptions of the test section can be found in Coulombe et al. (2012), Malenfant-Lepage et al. (2012), Stephani (2013) and Chen et al. (2020, 2021). The ground temperature data (°C) are available as: (1) recorded data, measured at one-hour intervals; (2) daily averages.

Data citation

Fortier, D., Chen, L. 2022. Ground temperature under unmitigated embankment and in natural conditions along the Alaska Highway at the Beaver Creek Road Experimental Site, Yukon, Canada (1997-2007), v. 1.0 (1997-2007). Nordicana D102, doi: 10.5885/45789CE-B06C83701915428A.

Location map

Key references

Chen, L., C. I. Voss, D. Fortier, and J. M. McKenzie (2021). Surface energy balance of sub-Arctic roads and highways in permafrost regions. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 32(4): 681-701 DOI: 10.1002/ppp.2129.

Chen, L., D. Fortier, J. M. McKenzie, and M. Sliger (2020). Impact of heat advection on the thermal regime of roads built on permafrost. Hydrological Processes 34(7): 1647-1664. DOI: 10.1002/hyp.13688.

Coulombe, S., D. Fortier, and E. Stephani, 2012. Using air convection ducts to control permafrost degradation under road infrastructure: Beaver Creek experimental site, Yukon, Canada, Cold Regions Engineering 2012: Sustainable infrastructure development in a changing cold environment, pp. 21-31 DOI: 10.1061/9780784412473.003.

Gagnon, S., D. Fortier, M. Sliger and K. Rioux (2021). Air-convection-reflective sheds: a mitigation technique that stopped degradation and promoted permafrost recovery under the Alaska Highway, south-western Yukon, Canada. Cold Regions Science and Technology 197: 103524. DOI: 10.1016/j.coldregions.2022.103524.

Malenfant-Lepage, J., G. Doré, D. Fortier, and P. Murchison, 2012. Thermal performance of the permafrost protection techniques at Beaver Creek experimental road site, Yukon, Canada. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Permafrost. Salekhard, Russia, The Northern Publisher, pp. 261-266 DOI: 10.1061/9780784412473.005.

Stephani. E., (2013) Permafrost Geosystem Assessment at the Beaver Creek Road Experimental Site (Alaska Highway, Yukon, Canada), Master dissertation, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Acknowledgements

We thank to Paul Murchison and Yukon Highways’ Public Works for providing thermal data and access to the test site. We thank Yukon Highways and Public Works for giving access to the study site and to the data. We also thank Transport Canada for funding this project and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for its financial support.